Stewards to pursue new issues with treatment

Gai Waterhouse could face further charges from More Joyous' autumn campaign after she was fined $5500 for failing to keep proper records and reporting a condition to stewards that could affect performance before last month's All Aged Stakes.

However, the stewards will investigate a record of More Joyous being lame on the Tuesday before she ran fifth in the Queen Of The Turf at Rosehill on April 6.

The lameness improved on the Wednesday before the race, and was again recorded in the treatment book, which supports Waterhouse's claims she had not tried to hide anything from stewards.

Waterhouse was fined $500 for not having More Joyous' treatment book up to date. Stewards took the book on the night of the All Aged Stakes on April 27, as they launched the inquiry. It revealed the lameness issue before the previous start.

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''We will also look at whether treatment given before the Queen Of The Turf ought to have been reported, and will do that on a separate date,'' chief steward Ray Murrihy said in summing up.

Waterhouse indicated news of the inquiry had reached the Queen and it had been ''shoddy'' and ''incredibly cruel, unfair and disgraceful'' on her and her family.

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She questioned Nash Rawiller's ride and the condition of the Randwick track, which stewards regarded in assessing a $5000 fine for not reporting More Joyous' sore neck under Australian Racing Rule 140 (a), which compels trainers to report a condition that could affect the performance of a horse.

Her counsel Malcolm Ramage, QC, said his advice would be to appeal the finding and fine.

Waterhouse said she had the final decision to run More Joyous, or any of 130 horses in her stable.

''There was no problem in my opinion,'' she said. ''I'm not some hick from the bush. I'm qualified in what I do. I'm a horse person from my tip to my toes.''

Murrihy had earlier pressed Waterhouse as to when she would report a problem with a runner from her stable. She said she wanted every horse to win and would not send them out if there was a problem.

Stewards set out 10 factors that should have led Waterhouse to report the problem with More Joyous before the All Aged. Murrihy said the points were to be looked at individually rather than in totality.

The whole hearing is unfair. I have been treated like a third-rate person and my family has been dragged through the mud, through the mire

''For you to have so many triggers and we wouldn't expect you not to ignore them,'' Murrihy said. ''It was a clear breach of your requirement to report a condition to us.

''We shouldn't have been kept in the dark. The public that supported the horse are entitled to know if there had been problems.''

Earlier in the inquiry, owner John Singleton was fined $15,000 for prejudicial conduct after making claims in interviews that Waterhouse's son Tom had told his mates the mare ''couldn't win.''

The explosive claim sparked the inquiry but stewards cleared Tom Waterhouse of any wrongdoing.